Drought tightens grip in Vic

Last week, Mr Broad raised warnings about farmers and communities in his north-western Victoria electorate of Mallee missing out on financial returns due to recent hot conditions.

He said the lack of rain was biting especially hard on crops growing in the eastern part of his electorate with temperatures upwards of 39 degrees, combined with hot northerly winds the week before, having diminished seasonal hopes.

“A lot of those people have no sheep on their properties and they’re not going to cut hay so it’s pretty bad,” he told Fairfax Media.

“In 1982, if we had a season like this there’d been nothing at all but because of no-till farming methods and better plant varieties the season could still go either way in some other locations.

“On the lighter soils at the top of the electorate (north of Hopetoun) some of the barley crops will finish, and finish okay – they formed enough of a head before the heat arrived.

“Others, south of Hopetoun, are cutting crops for hay and at least they’ll have something that’s sellable.”

Mr Broad said areas that missed out this season and have little opportunity to cut hay - facing two-years of drought - are Birchip, Watchem, Wycheproof, Charlton, Wedderburn and Culgoa.

He said the drought would impact those communities “quite significantly” with communities and small businesses also struggling.

“In those country towns, those small businesses also sell the papers, the milk and the local seed graders,” he said.

“So we will have to be mindful, as we look at a package to support them, that it is the broader reaches that are impacted by the seasons.

“Cash flow constraints are going to start to be felt in mid-January and February in 2016.”

But Mr Broad said there was still some “argy bargy” going on between the federal and State governments over the delivery of drought assistance measures.

He said State Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford had recently visited his electorate on the dry season and he’d subsequently spoken to her about having a bipartisan approach between the various levels of government.

“I expect things to be smoothed out,” he said.

“I phoned Jaala Pulford because I knew she’d been out there having a look (in Mallee) and said ‘Let’s try and make it as bipartisan as possible - there will be some things the State government will need to deliver and things the federal government will need to deliver so let’s keep the communication lines open because this is bigger than politics’.”

Mr Broad said administration of the delivery of low interest loans remained unresolved between the two levels of government.

He said the administration costs have been split 50-50 for the federal government scheme and every State apart from Victoria had agreed to that approach.

“Victoria didn’t want to pay their half but I’ll think they’ll see common sense,” he said.

Mr Broad said he did not believe anyone was “playing politics” over the delivery of drought support and it was more a case of new ministers learning their portfolios.

He said he anticipated Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce would also visit his electorate in November to look into water policy issues and inspect drought areas.

Mr Broad said he believed low interest loans had been very worthwhile in providing drought support.

“Essentially, what the government does is borrow the money at government bond rates and pass that borrowing on to those agricultural producers,” he said.

“It does not cost the Treasury anything as a booked account, but it puts competitive tension with the farmers' existing lenders to ensure that banks are mindful of the difficult season when offering packages.

“I will also seek to have meetings with banks and lenders and ask them to have conversations with their businesses and customers around the cash flow constraints that will come in, particularly as farmers go to put the crop in in 2016.

“The other thing that I would appeal to the State government on is about that in the very difficult years that we farmed through in the millennium droughts they offered a 50 per cent shire rates rebate, or assistance.

“If you were receiving household support, you were able to then present that and the state government covered half the costs of your rates.

“It is only a small area in the state of Victoria, but I would appeal to the State Andrews government to certainly give that due consideration.”